Dwayne Wade Offers Advice to Parents of Trans Children: ‘Our Kids Are Gonna Be Who They Are’
Dwayne Wade, former basketball star of the Miami Heat and father to trans daughter Zaya Wade, is now offering advice to new parents of trans children.“[Think of] the moment when you were in the hospital and you grabbed your daughter, and you looked at your daughter,” Wade told Variety on the Met Gala red carpet Monday night. “All the things that went through your mind and all the emotions that went through your mind.
And how much love fills your heart at that moment. Don’t let that ever leave you, no matter what.”He added, “The one thing we do as parents is we find our mini-me’s and we try to make them just like us.
But just understand, our kids are gonna be who they are. It’s our job to help mold them and help try to push them in the right places that they want to go, but just remember that moment, what you said in that hospital the day that they were born.” Zaya, who came out to her parents at age 12, is now a notable young figure in the LGBTQ community.
Her father and stepmother, actor Gabrielle Union, have since been highly supportive of her since. In addition to Zaya, who is now 14, Wade is a father to two sons, Zaire and Xavier, and a daughter, Kaavia.
